Some technical stuff.
A new use for those old dropbar suicide levers!
A lot of people would like a MTB to dropbar conversion but hesitate to do one because of the cost or difficulty in getting barend shifters or integrated brake lever shifters.
I had an old aluminium alloy frame MTB given to me recently and decided I wanted to do yet another MTB dropbar conversion. I had an old dropbar handlebar with suicide brake levers on it. I also had a pair of Shimano friction downtube shifters. Inspiration struck!
I removed the suicide lever and filed a flat on opposite sides of the portion of the brake lever pivot that stuck out from the side of the brake lever body. The flats were carefully filed until they accepted the innards of the downtube shifter. Then I simply mounted a shifter on each of the pivots and used the original bolt from the suicide lever to secure the shifter. I tightly wrapped shifter cable housing along the handlebar and had it end at the rear of the brake lever body. Then i added the handlebar tape.
Extensive and hard testing showed no movement of the cable housing and the shifter was easy to use with either my finger or thumb. Here is an album that shows the bike, the rear shifter in various positions and the operation of that rear shifter. Now suicide brake levers have a legitimate use and you can convert an MTB to a bropbar bike even if you don't have barend or itegrated brakelever/shifters.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/73832500@N00/albums/72157669609219192
Cheers